1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to web-based network transaction processing. More particularly, the invention is directed to techniques for preserving session state in a web application transaction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
By way of background, the use of web applications for conducting remote electronic transactions has become pervasive. A web application is a software program that allows a user to interact with a remote service using web page forms delivered by a web server and displayed to the user via a web client (e.g. a web browser). Although the term “web” is short for “World Wide Web” (a portion of the global Internet), web applications are not limited to public networks, and may be used in private networks or even between non-network connected machines. The types of transactions that may be implemented using web applications are many and varied. Examples include online purchasing, trading, banking and other forms of commerce. Web applications have also been utilized to implement user interfaces for hardware and software services, such as storage and database management systems.
In conventional web-based applications, especially those that deal with secure (e.g., banking) information, there are session timeouts that terminate user interaction with the application for security reasons if the timeouts are triggered. When this occurs, the user has to log back into the interface and start from the beginning of the transaction. Session state will likewise be lost if the session is disrupted due to network errors, equipment failures or the like. Current web applications also provide no mechanism whereby a user can voluntarily interrupt a session while saving session state. For example, when a user logs on to a financial institution website to make an online bill payment, the user must complete the transaction before logging off. The user is not allowed to save the current state of the transaction, logoff and then at some later date, log back into the system and continue with the transaction from the saved point.
It would be desirable to provide a technique whereby the session state of a web application can be preserved notwithstanding interruptions in transaction processing. What is particularly needed is the capability for web application users to control session state, so that a session can be paused and later resumed according to user requirements.